Watch the Fall of Humanity
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Buffy and her friend Rime are in Atlanta when the walking dead first rise and start eating people. Two months later they are still there, but then they meet some survivors from a camp outside the city. *Written for the 2016 August Fic-A-Day Challenge on LJ's Twisted Shorts.*
1. Watch the Fall of Humanity

**Crossover** : Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), The Walking Dead (TV), and Rimfrost - Trude Brænne Larssen.  
 **Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day Challenge on the Twisted Shorts comm on LJ.  
 **Timeline** : About a decade post-Chosen for BtVS, pre-series for TWD, and way post the books for Rimfrost.  
 **Warnings** : Abuse of canon, zombie related violence, off-screen major character deaths.  
 **Disclaimer** : The Buffyverse characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, et al. TWD belongs to whoever holds the copyright. Rimfrost belongs to Trude Brænne Larssen. The idea for this story belongs to me, but nothing else.

vnvnvnv

It had been 26 days since the first report about the dead coming back to 'life' somehow, or rather since they got back up again and tried to eat any and all humans and animals they could get their teeth into. It was a small mercy that at least the animals didn't turn.

It was 20 days since life as Buffy knew it had ended completely. The military had showed up and began randomly shooting people, whether they appeared to be sick or not, but just as suddenly as they had showed up they had disappeared. Not that Buffy or Rime cared about the armed forces, Buffy had memory flashes of the Initiative every time she saw them, but it would've been much better if they had come to protect them instead of trying to kill off what was left of humanity. But it didn't matter anymore; they were gone and so were pretty much everyone else as well.

In the days and weeks that followed Buffy had thanked her lucky stars that she had been with Rime when it all began. The two of them had been friends for years when everything literally began shambling its way toward hell. And no, she would at no point get over the fact that Rime's mother, Ulva, had been born in a small Norwegian village called Hell. It was just one of those things.

\- vnvnv -

Buffy was grateful that her old friends from Sunnydale were dead, thankful that they didn't live long enough to see the apocalypse actually happen, but at the same time she missed them terribly. The young and happy girl Willow had been before she got addicted to magic. Xander and his comic relief, even if he would put his foot in his mouth more often than not in the later years. Giles and all his old, dusty books. His need to remove his glasses and clean them whenever she or one of the others did something he just did not want to see.

Ironically Faith had lasted the longest, and like she had said she wanted to she had gone out in a blaze of glory. Buffy had received a box with some of her belongings, including the knife she had gotten from the Mayor. There had also been a letter in the box which explained what had happened and why Buffy had gotten the things she did. Even now she had no idea who had sent it or how they knew where she was staying at the time. Regardless, she was pleased to have gotten it and even more happy that Faith hadn't been travelling alone as she'd thought.

Faith's knife was currently strapped to her thigh, where she'd kept it since she realized that there were walkers out to kill people. It was her go-to weapon for close up kills.

\- vnvnv -

At the moment Buffy and Rime were squatting in an abandoned furniture store in Atlanta, GA. Mainly because it had been free of walkers and the beds there were both amazingly comfortable and on the second floor so they were less visible to both the living and the dead. They had opted not to leave the city right away, but instead try and find as much food, medicine, and other essentials as possible before heading out into the countryside to try and find something more permanent. They were also searching for other survivors who they could team up with.

The two women complimented each other well; Buffy was the protector, the one who mainly fought both the hostile and/or desperate humans they came across and the walking dead who tried to eat them. Rime on the other hand was a healer, literally. She wasn't a witch, but rather a part-human. Years ago Rime had told Buffy that her mother had been entirely human, but her father, Arolin, was one of what she called the 'Mountain Nation'. They lived inside the Norwegian mountains and that was where Rime had been born and raised, but she had been young and curious, and wanted to see the world outside. It was this curiosity which had eventually led her to America centuries later.

Outside the building they heard a herd of walkers shambling by as someone clearly alive, at least for a little while longer, screamed in fear before it was abruptly cut off. Both women closed their eyes. Another life was lost to the living dead, someone else they were unable to save.


	2. Supply Run

There had been no warnings. No Slayer dreams, no visions, no premonitions. Nothing. Just a gut feeling that told her something bad was coming and that she needed to be in Atlanta when it did.

It was the 32nd day after the apocalypse, and Buffy and Rime were still in Atlanta. In the month or so since the world ended they had saved several dozen people only for them to insist on getting out of the city right away. Not that they blamed any of them for wanting to get away from the increasingly large herds, but Buffy had this feeling that she had to stay. At least for now. Rime, who didn't have to be anywhere in particular, had chosen to stay with her friend.

Today they were raiding a pharmacy, and as far as they knew it was more or less untouched as it was located on a side street. That, however, didn't mean they had any intention of going in blind. Chances were that there would be walkers nearby, and most likely a couple inside.

Buffy shot her companion a quick look. Rime was dressed in faded blue jeans, a semi-clean blue-grey tank top, and solid army boots. Her long, snow white hair was in a braid which reached halfway down her backside. She'd kept it that way since the panic first broke out so it wouldn't get stuck on anything, and so it would be more difficult for anyone to grab it. Buffy herself was dressed in black leather pants, a light pink tank top with My Little Pony on the front, and the same kind of army boots. Her own blonde locks hung loose around her shoulders.

As they approached the building Rime used her superior height, 6' without shoes, to look over a wall separating a small parking space from the one next to it. A quick, silent nod and they were over and walking quickly towards a side door. Another few glances around to make sure neither the living nor the dead were around or paying attention to them, and Buffy used her Slayer strength to push in the locked door.

"Left", Rime whispered.

"Right. Meet you in the middle, by the counter." Came the Slayers equally low reply.

They spent the next 10 minutes or so collecting whatever they thought might be usable, some they simply took a chance on. All while keeping a wary eye on both the door they had entered through and a second door that clearly lead towards the back.

Buffy found vitamins, band-aids, bandages, first aid kits, antibiotic ointment, prenatal vitamins, pregnancy tests, sunscreen, and a number of other things which might or might not come in useful. She couldn't get pregnant, or get STD's for that matter, and even if she could she hadn't had a lover in over a year so those were not for her. It was more of a safety precaution; sooner or later they would meet up with and join a group, and as sex was one of the most natural things in existence someone was bound to end up pregnant at some point.

As she walked along the rows and picked bottles and boxes off the shelves, she was listening intently to everything around her. She always knew where Rime was, she kept an ear out for any sounds out of the ordinary, and the tell-tale sounds of shuffling feet and the accompanying groaning was always there now. There was at least one walker behind the second door, probably two.

In what felt like no time at all they met by the counter.

"I found antibiotics, painkillers, bandages, and most of the other things I was hoping for, but we should probably make another run through here another day."

Buffy simply nodded. They had a well filled storage of necessities back at the furniture store, but they would always need more of everything. And everything was suddenly in very limited supply.

"There's one, likely two walkers behind the back door." She turned towards the back before she turned her head towards the other woman. "Stay here while I clear the way."

A silent nod and she picked up her pace until she stood before a normal looking blue door. The sound of shuffling feet were a little louder back here. A quick twist of the handle and she was inside, Faith's knife in one hand and a sharp wooden stake in the other. The sound of the broken door alerted the walkers inside and they greeted her with loud groans as they began moving towards her as quickly as they could. A quick strike with the knife to number one's forehead and he was permanently down. The second one got a stake between the eyes, before she was surprised by a third one. A child. A small black girl of about six years, with thin braids all over her head, and a face that would've promised beauty had she lived long enough.

Buffy bit her teeth together and plunged the knife quickly into the girl's head before she could convince herself not to. She hated seeing dead children, and there were way too many of them in Atlanta.

After moving the three corpses out of the way she called her friend and they went through the back storage before they left as quickly and as quietly as they had arrived. Making their way back to their base while the sun was still out.

The walkers didn't care if it was light or dark, all that mattered to them was their insatiable hunger and the humans who could temporarily feed it, but Buffy had spent nearly two decades knowing that the most dangerous things usually came out to play after dark. And that habit was hard to break, so that meant supply runs usually happened during daylight hours.

Back at the furniture store they tallied their loot. They had gotten a lot of the much-needed medicine, six bottles of water, three bottles of soda, and four cans of soup. Neither had any idea why there was soup at a pharmacy, but they didn't care. It was food and like everything else they needed more of it.

All in all it had been a successful run.


	3. And the Horse You Rode In On

It was 60 days, or about two months, since the world had fallen into total chaos, and while Buffy was sitting on a fence just watching a large group of walkers amble around aimlessly an odd, vaguely unfamiliar noise reached her ears. It sounded suspiciously like _click-clack, click-clack_. She lifted her head, trying to pin-point the source of the sound before she got up, jumped off the fence, and walked a couple of streets over to see an unexpected sight; a man was riding on a horse, wearing a sheriff's uniform, including a sheriff's hat. A cursory sweep over the surrounding area didn't reveal anyone else, at least no one with a pulse.

Buffy decided to follow the man, if for no other reason than to save him from his own stupidity. Riding into a walker infested city on a _horse_ , really?! What was he thinking?

Rime was safe back at the furniture store, and would not go anywhere else until she got back. The woman was brave but her self-preservation instincts were thankfully in good working order, most of the time. Not that Buffy had any room to talk; she regularly took risks she would have yelled at anyone else for even thinking about. But then again, she was a Slayer, which few others could claim, and that meant that taking dangerous risks were nothing new to her. It was just a way of life.

The man on the horse, however, read as completely human according to her Slaydar. Which on one side was a good thing, because no demons? Definitely a good thing. On the other, it was bad for him because it meant he probably only had the guns on his back to defend himself with, and that was bad. Noise attracted the walkers, especially gunshots as they were both sharp and loud, but also because there were many large groups of walkers shambling around nearby looking for dinner.

Unsurprisingly it didn't take long for him to get himself nearly encircled by the walkers, but at the last minute he managed to escape under an abandoned tank. The horse wasn't as lucky and many of the walkers feasted on the animal as it was dying. Buffy was grateful when it disappeared beneath the herd and she was unable to see it anymore. Sadly it didn't mute the sound of chewing and the ripping of flesh, nor did it stop her from hearing the anguished neighing the animal made before it finally became blissfully silent.

Apparently there was a hatch of some kind underneath the military vehicle as she heard the sound of him scrambling upwards and then a thud of something being slammed in place before all she could barely hear was the sound of his heavy breathing. Next thing she heard was another gunshot, this time clearly from the inside of the tank, before it went silent again. A few minutes after that his head and upper body popped up from the hatch on top of the tank. The man surveyed the immediate area before the approaching walkers with enough muscle memory to climb came at him. He quickly ducked down again, bringing the top hatch with him and a click was heard as he locked it.

Sometime later the latch at the top of the tank suddenly opened and the sheriff quickly climbed out and made a run for it. Further back from the feeding frenzy Buffy didn't bother to hold back her eye roll as she began running, adding Slayer speed to catch up, dodging walkers and using the Scythe to cut the top of the heads off of the ones she couldn't avoid. Stupid males and their need to do stupidly heroic things. The sheriff made a right down a side street, firing into the walkers when they came to close. Suddenly she heard a another man say, "Woah, not dead! Come on, come on!"

 _Huh_ , it sounded like there was some kind of plan involved in this madness after all, even if it seemed to be a flimsy one. Buffy moved a little faster, quickly stabbing and slicing at the dead trying to close her in, and then she was in the small alley the two men had run down and she saw them. They were climbing up a fire escape as fast as they could manage, and the narrow street below them was promptly being filled up with hungry corpses.

She made a split second decision and took a running leap up on a trashcan, jumped on various things, including a few walkers, before she made a final jump onto the fire escape. Then she was climbing up towards the sheriff and his pseudo rescuer. Above her they were staring in shock at her from a landing about a third of the way up the building.

When she finally put first one foot and then the other on the landing decisively, she stood up and smiled brightly at the two stunned men and said in her best air-headed cheerleader voice, "Hi!" And then laughed inwardly as their jaws literally dropped open.


	4. Apocalyptic Fashion

Buffy bit down on her laughter. She knew full well that she looked the part of a stereotypical dumb blonde, especially when she made an effort to play the part. While she was still wearing black leather pants and black combat boots, her shirt was a bright pink baby tee with several pink Care Bears printed on the front. To make matter worse, or better - depending on your point of view - her blonde hair was in twin braids. It made her look like she was in her mid teens, or late teens at the most.

According to Rime it was her Apocalypse Barbie look, or if she was in a bad mood - her Apocalypse Lolita/Baby Prostitute look. The last one had been coined when she'd found some make-up and applied it a little too generously.

The twenty-something Asian guy recovered his voice first. "Hi." Buffy rewarded him with a second sunny smile that he needed another few moments to recover from. "Where did you come from? There were no one else out by the tank or near by."

"Oh." She giggled as she continued her play-acting. "I was in a sidestreet when I, like, heard a gunshot and went to investigate. When I, like, got there. He," she pointed needlessly at the man who had introduced himself as Rick Grimes to the kid while she had been climbing, "was running like a madman down the street, shooting the dead people, and, like, out of nowhere you, like, jumped out and both of you started running and then, like Batman, you began climbing up here. It was like an action movie!" Buffy's smile at the end was bright enough to blind the sun, while she winced inwardly at the overuse of teenage slang and the number of times she'd managed to slip 'like' into that short explanation.

Officer Not-So-Friendly didn't seem to buy her act though, or at least not as much as the Asian kid, who had yet to introduce himself because he had seen her before he had managed to reply to the sheriff. So in an effort to divert a little attention from herself, she decided Rick had had the right idea and stuck her hand out.

"I'm Buffy, by the way". Her name was so not helping her image in the slightest, but in an effort to correct her own over enthusiastic first impression she toned down her smile a little.

"G-Glenn. My name is Glenn Rhee. Nice to meet you." Apparently her name was uncommon enough that he sort-of managed to concentrate, but before Glenn could introduce his new friend, the other man reached out his own hand and shook hers.

"Rick Grimes." Before he could get another word in edgewise, Buffy decided to move things along. Their little ledge was little too exposed in her opinion.

"Not to be, like, rude or anything, but shouldn't we, like, be somewhere less visible?" That got them moving, and after a short argument Glenn went first, followed by Rick, and then Buffy brought up the rear.

Next thing she knew they were climbing the next ladder up towards the roof.


	5. Guns and Gunshots

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day Challenge on the Twisted Shorts comm on LJ. Day 9.

There wasn't a whole lot of talking while they climbed the rest of the way up to the roof and then walked across several rooftops, through one building, and down an outdoor staircase. As they were half-running down the stairs Glenn radioed someone in his group to warn them he was coming back, but that he was bringing a couple of guests.

Down in the alley there were four walkers shambling around. Buffy put on a burst of speed, and as a door opened up and two people in riot gear carrying baseball bats came running out, she had already decapitated one and was about to drive the stake of her Scythe into the side of the head of the second. The last two received their second and final deaths by way of the aforementioned baseball bats before the five of them ran inside.

Shortly after getting inside a blonde woman backed Rick up against a table, holding a gun to his head and looking incensed. "We're dead because of you! You just rang the dinner bell." Without thinking Buffy suddenly had the woman on her knees, one hand bent behind her back, while the gun clattered to the floor and away from them. A smaller knife had appeared in her other hand and it's sharp blade was resting against the unknown woman's throat. Her eyes had widened in shock while Buffy's own eyes had narrowed in annoyance more than anything else.

"Care to to explain why you felt the need to threaten a live human being who your friend just risked his life to save? And don't give me the he attracted the walkers with gunshots BS, because that's not a good reason. We all attract them from time to time and your little stunt didn't improve anything." Buffy's voice was ice cold and in complete contrast to her ostensibly youthful clothing and hairstyle.

Evidently she had not seen Buffy because she was more than just little bit startled by her sudden arrival. Although how she had missed Buffy slicing and dicing two corpses was anyone's guess.

"What?" Her voice was bewildered and confused, but the anger was still there.

"Your friend, Glenn, risked his life to save Rick, Officer Dumbass over there, from the walkers who are currently feasting on his poor horse." Buffy turned her head towards the rest of the group before she continued. "Yes, he really did ride into Atlanta on freaking horseback and straight into a herd of walkers, and then drawing in even more of their friends."

Turning back to the woman she was still holding in an armlock she said, without waiting for a reply to her first question and instead asking another. "Are you going to behave or do I have to cause some real physical damage to you instead of just denting your pride?"

"I'll behave! Ow! Let me go!" Buffy did let get go, and in the same smooth motion she made sure to be out of arm's length, just to be on the safe side. Little Miss Anger Management clearly had a hot temper, and getting into an actual fight with her would sooo not be fair.

Before anyone else could say anything a muted gunshot was heard from above them. Not long after there was a second gunshot and then a third.

"Oh god, is that Dixon?" Andrea asked in disbelief while rubbing her arm and looking angrily at Buffy. A fourth muffled gunshot was heard and the entire group left for the stairs to investigate what this 'Dixon' guy was shooting at up on the roof.

Yes, her blonde airhead cover was probably blown to pieces, but seriously? That Andrea woman's behaviour was uncalled for, and it certainly didn't help that Buffy detested guns. Regardless, there was another gun tootin' dumbass upstairs who might or might not need to be dealt with. Only time would tell.


	6. Handcuffs

Up on the rooftop a man in his early 50's was standing on the ledge shooting at the walkers down on the street with a scoped rifle. As soon as the group from downstairs came out on the roof two men, a Hispanic man and black man who had been introduced as Morales and T-Dog along the way, began chastising Dixon for wasting bullets and attracting even more walkers by making loud noises.

While everyone were distracted with the scuffle, Buffy walked behind the rest of the group and helped herself to Rick's handcuffs, without him noticing, before walking in front of her latest problem person and put on her best cheerleader smile right as he was talking about a change in leadership.

"Hi!" Her smile was bright enough to blind the sun, but it had more teeth than when she'd done this to Glenn and Rick earlier down on the platform. "We haven't been introduced yet, but I'm Buffy and I just met some of the people from your group. Officer No-So-Friendly back there showed up at the same time."

She conveniently pointed out Rick, who was very obvious in his uniform and matching hat, to the now shocked Dixon. "He had the bright idea to ride an actual horse into the city and right into a herd. Dumb, right?" She executed a perfect teenage 'adults are such idiots' eyeroll. While she'd been talking she had moved closer to the man without him being any the wiser, and before his shock could wear off she grabbed the arm holding the rifle and twisted it just so that he lost the weapon. When it was out of his hand she completed the twist and got his arm behind his back, clicked one half of the handcuffs on, before quickly grabbing the other arm and finishing the process.

Buffy dropped the act again and gave a much more genuine grin. "I guess this means that I'm in charge".

"What the hell, woman? Uncuff me!" the angry words rolled off Buffy as she put her knee into his back and put the small knife from earlier against his jugular vein. The man's struggles to free himself ceased immediately.

"Nope. You're clearly a problem that needs to be dealt with and this is as good as any way to do it. So be a good boy and be quiet, the adults need to have a little chat."

She turned towards the rest of the group. It was a little worse for wear after Dixon had thrown a few punches. T-Dog was on the ground and Morales had gotten a fist in the midsection, but they didn't seem to be seriously injured.

What followed was a short discussion over how to get out of the building they were in and through the increasingly large herd around the block. After checking the flood tunnel underneath the building on Jacqui's suggestion and it turned to be a bust, they were back to scratch when Buffy suddenly thought of something else.

"What about the backdoor we got in through? There's a bus blockage there so it should be relatively safe to go back there, up into the next door building and see if we can find an exit there, or if necessary in the next building over."

After some more arguments it was agreed that that was what they were going to do. Glenn was sent to check on the state of the alley, armed with one of the baseball bats from before, while the rest of them stayed hidden away from the doors and the walkers who kept trying to get through the second door. All of them made sure that they were armed with something other than a gun. Now was not the time to make unnecessary racket.

Dixon, who people alternately called Merle, kept insulting everyone and using both sexist and racial slurs. After a while Rick got annoyed enough that he found a pair of socks and a belt; the socks were separated and one was effectively stuffed inside Merle's mouth while Rick used the belt to tie it in place. Most of the remaining group grinned in relief at that, no one had been interested in the tirade, but then Glenn returned and they were running out just as they heard the sliding doors in the front of the building shatter and the walkers groaning in anticipation of food.

There were another two walkers in the alley but they were quickly dispatched and the group was soon up the stairs. Once they were inside the new building they slowed to a walk, while looking around carefully. Glenn, Buffy, and Rick had run through here earlier, but that didn't mean that there couldn't be people hiding somewhere. No matter how unlikely it was, it was better to be safe than sorry.

About an hour and several missteps later and they were out on the street. Which was when the argument began; what did they do now? Get a car, get out of town and back to the Quarry Camp, or get a car and drive further into the city to fetch Buffy's friend, Rime, and their supplies?


	7. Travel Arrangements

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day Challenge on the Twisted Shorts comm on LJ. Day 11.  
 **Timeline** : Post-Chosen for BtVS, season one (01x02 'Guts') for TWD.  
 **Disclaimer** : The Buffyverse belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, et al. TWD and Rimfrost belongs to someone with big, scary lawyers.

It didn't take Buffy long to break up the argument with an alternative as to what they should do next. Buffy and one or two of the group would go and get Rime and their stuff, while the rest of the group went ahead to the camp outside the city. The returning group could simply pick a car and hotwire it, there were certainly enough of them to choose from and a suitable one might even have keys. The roads should be easy enough to get through from here on and out if they were careful.

Unsurprisingly there was a clash of opinions over whether it was smart to split up and then who should go with Buffy to 'protect' her, even if no one actually used those words. There were short memories all around apparently, except for Glenn, Andrea, and the still handcuffed Merle who had all either experienced Buffy's ability to defend herself and her ability to attack if she had to, or witnessed it twice in Glenn's case.

In the end she picked Glenn because he was fast and by his own admission had already been on several supply runs in the city by himself, indirectly indicating that he was able to get around without getting hurt or killed by walkers or other live humans. The lack of interruptions and objections from the rest gave it credibility. To Buffy's surprise Andrea volunteered herself as the third person, citing that she needed the experience. Which, okay, good point. Although she made certain the woman understood that Buffy was in charge and that her word was law, and that there would be repercussions if she caused problems.

A deal was struck; Morales, T-Dog, Merle, Jacqui, and Rick would return to the Quarry Camp as soon as they got themselves a working car, and Buffy, Glenn, and Andrea would return to the furniture store and Rime. Depending on the situation over there, the number of walkers outside, and how long it would take them to actually get there they would return to the camp either later in the day or the next morning.

They split up with Morales' group going one way and Buffy's the other. Buffy, Glenn, and Andrea walked to the two latters astonishment, but she insisted. They were headed further towards downtown and using something as noisy as a car would only draw the walkers straight to them. No, it was better to walk. It also meant they could drop into various shops along the way and hopefully find more provisions. The drawback being, of course, that they could only carry so much while still being able to run, but a little food and medicine was better than nothing and could make all the difference later on.

After over three hours, entering about half a dozen shops and four offices where they managed to acquire some food, water, medicine, a couple changes of clothing, and even a few bags to store it all in, they arrived at Buffy's base/temporary home.


	8. A Comfortable Bed For the Night

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day. _Day 17_.

When they finally reached the furniture store Buffy was relieved. If she had been on her own it would've taken half an hour, 45 minutes at the most. It wasn't just because of her Slayer abilities either, although those definitely helped. The extra supplies would be useful though, she couldn't argue against that.

It was strange really, as a teenager she couldn't go on a weekend trip without at least two big bags of clothing, shoes, and a whole lot of other 'necessary' things, and then when she began travelling after the Battle of Sunnydale she learned to pack everything she needed in two medium sized bags with the understanding she would be on the road for months. This did not include her weapons though. That was a whole other issue she refused to compromise on, and now, post-apocalypse, she was reassured that this had been a good decision.

Rime always packed light, at least as far as people knew. A comfortable backpack and a medium sized bag was all she had owned before. Of course her backpack had some kind of fancy spellwork on it to make it bottomless and to make sure it was always a comfortable weight on her back. The extra bag was mostly for show, and to a lesser degree for easier access to various things. The second Christmas after they met she had given Buffy a similar backpack with the same magical properties. It was, without a doubt, one of her top three most prized possessions. The apocalypse had only increased it's value to her.

She hadn't brought the bag with her on her little sojourn into walker territory though, it was safely back at the temporary base with Rime. Which meant taking a new, normal one from a random shop to put their loot in, and then add to it as they moved closer to their goal.

All three of them had managed to fill their packs to the brim by the time they made it to the furniture store. Water had been their main priority, closely followed by food and medicine. Both Glenn and Andrea had also taken some clothes along the way, and in Andrea's case she had also taken some for her little sister.

They entered through a side door Buffy had a key to, there had been several spare keys in an office which they'd found after breaking in through another door, and walked quietly inside before ascending a flight of stairs up to the second floor. Like any other shop it had had an alarm system but Rime had managed to disarm it.

"Rime. I'm back and I've brought guests." Buffy's voice was low so as not to disturb anything or anyone they didn't want to know about their presence. It was unlikely that there were walkers or any other humans than her friend in there, but it was better to stay safe than be sorry about it later. If there was a later.

"How can you be sure she's still here if you left her here alone?" It was Andrea who spoke. Of course it was. Or rather it was Andrea who asked in a hissing whisper. Buffy supposed it was a good thing that she at least kept her voice down. There was a long chat in Andrea's future about her desperate need to fit in and to prove herself, and how it only made things worse for her, not better. But that was for later, much later. There were other more important things to deal with at the moment than a whining woman in her mid-thirties.

The three of them kept walking, Buffy in the lead, further into the main part of the second floor before veering to the left. She called out again and this time she got a reply.

"I am still here. Who are your new friends?" Rime's voice was soft and came from their right side. Buffy stepped around a bookcase and came face-to-face with her long time friend. Judging by her appearance she'd been bored enough to try and fix her hair as it was currently loose with only two braids on each side of her face, framing it in a complementary way, instead of the long braid she usually wore. She had also changed into jeans and a blue, short-sleeved top with muted yellow stars on it. Essentially she looked like a sort-of modern day hippie.

"This is Andrea and Glenn. They're part of a bigger group who have a camp in a quarry outside the city. Those two and some others were sent into Atlanta to get supplies for everyone. Some guy named Rick decided it was a great idea to ride a horse into the city and started a feeding frenzy when he lost the horse." Buffy paused a little so Rime could digest the news before she continued.

"He went back with the others. We're here to fetch you and our stuff and then go to the camp." She finished her recap of the day's events so far. Unseen by the other two she gave Rime their long-time signal that they needed to talk, privately.

Buffy then expanded on her explanation, with running commentary from Andrea, and, to a lesser extent, Glenn.

Later on when they had finished going through everything, both the verbal rehashing of the meeting with part of the Quarry Camp and when they had finished going through all their provisions, it was late enough that Buffy made an executive decision and decided they would spend one last night in the furniture store. Andrea protested immediately, but Glenn agreed. Full dark was fast approaching and it would make it more difficult to spot the walkers, especially since they would need to go back and forth to load up Buffy's car. Darkness plus big, heavy bags and boxes equaled a very bad idea.

If nothing else it was probably the last time in who only knew how long until they would be able to sleep in proper beds again. A fact which made even Andrea relent, and it was unanimous; they would get up bright and early the next morning, pack everything, and then leave for the camp.


	9. Reality Check For the Quarry Camp

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day. _Day 20_.  
 **Timeline** : Post-Chosen for BtVS, season one for TWD, post-Rimfrost.

Buffy would usually go days, or occasionally up to a week, without sleeping if the situation called for it. Her sleeping patterns had changed drastically after Willow used black magic to resurrect her; afterwards she hadn't just felt like she was in her own personal hell, but more and more she was unable to find even temporary salvation in dreams. She had been able to sleep less and less, and when she was able to sleep her dreams were often of the prophetic kind which wasn't conducive at all to the healing sleep she needed. First she had stayed awake for about two days before being able to rest for a full night, but soon her respite had gone one hour at a time until she was lucky if she got three full hours.

It was both a blessing and a curse, one of the upsides to it was that she had gotten much less tired after receiving the additional power from the Shadowmen and then, not long after, another boost from the Slayer Activation Spell. Faith had told her she didn't tire much either after that, but the change had been different for her. It also meant she didn't lose five to eight hours a day to sleep, meaning she got a lot more done. Still, most of the time she would've rather have a full night of rest. At least that's what she'd wanted Before. Now it was a key reason as to why she and Rime were still alive, and it would be a key reason to keep the dumbasses outside the city alive as well.

Last night however she had gotten into a bed and made sure to get a few hours of rest despite having slept the night before, to her own shock she had actually been successful in this endeavour. Rime had graciously agreed to keep watch for the few hours Buffy would be asleep. Which naturally meant she was subjected to a Slayer Dream regarding the future of the Quarry Camp, and if the little she saw was any indication they were even bigger fools than she had thought.

Camping in the woods with no protection what-so-ever? No walls, fences, or even using cars and buildings as a first defence, half the people sleeping in *tents*? Using *guns* as their primary weapons? Had these people ever heard of *self-preservation*? Buffy felt like banging her head against the nearest surface. Instead she began mentally planning how to get these people into a more offensive state of mind, rather than just reacting in defense.

By first light she had an outline, but focused on getting Rime, Andrea, and Glenn out of the furniture store and into the two cars waiting for them outside. One of them was Buffy's car; a four wheel drive Jeep she'd had Before and which was thankfully in good working order, the other was a FedEx van they had filled with various supplies. Andrea and Glenn would drive that one while Buffy and Rime took her car.

When they finally reached the campsite several hours later they had stopped once to raid a sporting goods store for any number of things they needed for the group's continued survival. Including but not limited to knives, swords, katanas, scabbards, sheaths, crossbows, arrows, crossbow bolts, books on surviving in various natural regions and all kinds of weather conditions.

Upon their arrival at the camp Andrea was enthusiastically greeted by her younger sister and Glenn was left to introduce them, and share the news of the supplies she and Rime had stolen from various places within the city. That news had been greeted with great eagerness and approval. Her disapproval of their lack of any defenses was less welcome.

"Why have you pitched tents when you *know* there are corpses walking around just waiting to find and *eat* all of you? Do you have any idea how vulnerable you are inside that little piece of canvas?" She should probably have waited at least an hour before starting in on them, but really. This was way beyond ridiculous, and the fact that they had stayed here for eight weeks without getting ambushed was a miracle. It was a small mercy that all the vampires seemed to have gone poof soon after the infection broke out, or they would've been in even bigger trouble.

A dark haired man in a blue striped shirt, several days worth of scruff, and a necklace with a '22' on it jumped right in and defended what she quickly understood to be his decisions.

"Easy, girl. We're relatively safe out here. A few walkers have come close to the camp but we have a sentry to keep watch." Buffy actually rolled her eyes at that, and vaguely thanked herself for changing into a blue tank top and that she left her hair loose rather than in the twin braids she'd had it in when she met the others. The numerous sheaths and holsters all over her body helped to give the impression she wasn't as helpless as she would've looked otherwise. Thereby giving her words more validity.

"That won't help much if the camp gets overrun. The guard will have to yell to get everyone's attention, and that will also get the attention of all the other walkers in the vicinity. Meanwhile the people in the tents will be sitting ducks whether they stay inside or if they try to get out. They'll be vulnerable and easy prey." She resisted the urge to cross her arms below her chest like an indignant teenager.

"If you're going to stay somewhere this unsafe the least you could've done is make sure everyone slept in the cars, the RV, or somewhere high enough that the walkers can't get them."

Unsurprisingly everything went downhill from there, and when the time came to sleep for the night the asshat chose to very deliberately and very blatantly go to and enter his tent. Lori, supported by Rick, who it turned out was Lori's husband, asked if they could sleep in the back of the FedEx van rather than the tent she and her son, Carl, has slept in up until that point. Andrea and her sister Amy asked if they could sleep in the front seats of the same van. Buffy permitted both, along with allowing Glenn to sleep in the backseat of her Jeep while Rime took one of the front seats.

About half of the people in the camp who had slept in tents so far ended up staying inside a vehicle that night, while others agreed with Shane and went to their own tents. The new arrangements were much more intimate than the older one, but it provided more shelter and protection. Buffy herself spent the night on the hood of her car, keeping watch from a lower position than the sentry on top of the RV.

Over the next few days Buffy, supported by Rime, the two elder Grimes', Morales, Glenn, Andrea, Amy, T-Dog, and Jacqui, tried to make the campsite more secure. It wasn't an easy task, and the preferable thing would've been to leave the area entirely. Unfortunately that idea was shot down by more people than just Shane.

Then, five days after her arrival, she was out in the woods hunting for deer along with Daryl, Merle's younger brother, who proved himself to be a competent tracker and hunter. He turned out to be a slightly more friendly version of his brother, but without the racism and without most of the sexism. He was easier on the eyes as well.

When they neared the camp after having managed to shoot a deer, Buffy suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of screaming and gunshots.


	10. Bad Moon Rising

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day. Day 21.

They were still far enough away from the camp that normal people would not have been able to hear either the screaming or the gunshots, but Buffy's hearing had been extremely enhanced due to the power given to her when she became the Slayer and her senses had only become more potent over the years as she grew even more powerful. She had hoped to get more time to prepare the group for the walker ambush she had seen in her Slayer Dream a week before, but clearly that was not to be. She sighed and turned to Daryl who was walking behind her and to the left.

"There's an attack on the camp, dump the rabbits and the squirrels, and start running," And before he got the chance to do more than stare at her she had dropped the deer and took off at a speed no human could ever hope to match or even get near.

Buffy reached the campsite within ten minutes and ran into total chaos. There were walkers everywhere, the group were spread all over, and only a few had managed to get into the vehicles. She did a mental headcount; There had been 35 people in the camp when she and Daryl had gone hunting that morning, but it looked like that number would be seriously reduced tonight.

She called the Scythe to her and continued her run into the camp and sliced the head of four walkers on the way. Andrea and Amy were standing in front of the FedEx truck wielding the swords she had given them on her second day. There was no grace to their movements but there was a small pile of permanently dead corpses in front of them and to both sides, and that meant the two women had managed to learn something in the last few days. Sophia and Carl were between them and the truck in relative safety, but none of them had noticed the crawlers beneath the big vehicle. Lori was on the other side of the camp behind Rick and Shane who were all trying with increasing desperation to kill the walkers and to find Carl.

Miranda and her two children were inside their car while Morales and Glenn were outside shooting at anything that came towards them. T-Dog was shooting at anything that was moving and didn't look alive as well. It was a disorganized mess. If nothing else this should work to her advantage so she could finally get them onboard with her ideas to protect and arm the group her way.

She took in everything in a second and went straight for the FedEx truck, slicing and dicing all the walkers who dared to cross her path. When she made it there she threw the scythe high into the air before she grabbed Sophia and then threw her onto the roof of the truck. Carl got the same treatment a few seconds later. Then she caught the Scythe on its downward arch and stabbed a walker in the eye. The children would probably have some bruises later but they were safer up there than down on the ground, at least as long as none of the walkers realized they could get to them by way of the hood of the car. As an afterthought she stabbed the two crawlers in the back of the head.

To her great approval the two sisters were still chopping heads off the walkers rather than gawking at her. All they'd done was turn enough to identify her and then they went straight back to what they'd been doing. She joined them to get some answers.

"What happened here?"

"We were eating dinner. I had to go to the bathroom, and when I came out of the RV I saw a walker right in front of me. Thankfully I brought the sword you gave me with me and managed to cut its arm off and then the head. I screamed to get everyone's attention." The reply came from Amy, who was now in between Buffy and sister.

Andrea added, "We didn't hear or see them before they were already on top of us, but they came from the forest." That was odd as neither she nor Daryl had seen any herds while hunting. A few who shambled around on its own, or maybe two or three, but not a herd.

After severing another head Amy resumed her explanation, "Everyone began screaming and shouting, then shooting. Andrea got over to me and we got Carl and Sophia. And now you're here." She paused and looked behind Buffy. "Where's Daryl?"

"We got a deer, some rabbits, and some squirrels. He had to put them somewhere so I ran ahead." She gave the camp another overview, before she tacked on, "Good job with the swords, both of you. Keep it up." Then she gave them an encouraging smile before she moved on. She left it unsaid that they were to maintain their protective stance over the two kids.

There was no need to explain that she ran too fast for Daryl to keep up. He would get there and hopefully not get killed by the stragglers. Daryl, unlike most of the adults in the group, had a skillset which was both beneficial and incredibly important for their survival. It was kinda horrifying to see that most of the group treated him like a worthless outcast, and completely ignoring that he was one of the few people who ensured they had fresh meat to eat.

She looked around the camp again. Where was Rime? Her snow white hair was always easily recognizable in any crowd, and it usually made it an effortless task to spot her, especially at night. Buffy's Scythe was in continuous motion; separating the top of the walkers head from the rest of their body, and stabbing others in the eye with the stake in the other end. It was quick and effective; a process she had perfected over the last decade on an entirely different kind of undead.

Slicing and stabbing her way across the camp she reached Rick, Shane, and Lori. They had managed to get themselves surrounded by about a dozen of the damn things. Another bout of slicing and dicing and she was beside Rick who was looking frantically around, no doubt for his missing son.

"Carl and Sophia are on top of FedEx truck, and reasonably safe. For now." The eyes of Rick, his wife, and his supposed best friend immediately flew to the top of the vehicle in question and the boy's parents both let out a breath of relief.

Then she got to the real reason she was over by them, as per her experiences the parents of missing children were rarely able to properly answer questions while the fate of their children were unknown. Get the child, or at least point the child out to them, and they would calm down and most of the time be more willing to help as long as their own children were safe and unharmed. Well, as safe as anyone could be in the middle of a walker ambush.

"Have any of you seen Rime?" Rick and Shane had kept shooting at the walkers closest to them as soon as Carl's safety had been clarified, while Lori was simply holding her machete in an awkward grip. The three of them refocused their attention and looked both left and right, trying to spot the 'young' woman. Meanwhile Buffy cut half the head of another three walkers and then stabbed another two.

"No, we've been too focused on finding Carl, and I can't see her anywhere." Lori replied, meeting Buffy's eyes with a sympathetic before they slid back up to her son. The two men added their own negative replies in between taking shots.

Buffy nodded and moved on. Slice, chop, kick, stab, stab. Buffy danced around the camp at a speed no one else could've matched. Cut, kick, kick, slice, stab, and she jumped over a pile of no longer moving bodies. Then she heard Rime's voice and she focused on the sound, pinpointing the direction it was coming from.

A few seconds later she was by Dale's RV, with the older man sitting wide-eyed inside along with a woman she didn't remember the name of. Then she was around the other side of the vehicle and finally saw her friend. She and Jacqui were trying to calm down a hysterical woman Buffy recognized as Carol only because she was Sophia's mother. Years of having to figure out which child belonged to which parents had its uses.

She repeated her words from the short meeting with the Grimes parents, "Sophia and Carl are on the top of the FedEx truck, and safe from the walkers as long as they stay up there." Then added, "Andrea and Amy are guarding them."

Much like Lori and Rick she gave a breath of relief, but it didn't explain the tears. The little girl was alive, and as far as Buffy had seen both mother and daughter were unharmed. Then Carol ran around the RV so she could see her daughter with her own eyes, and Buffy reflexively yanked her back just in time to stop her from getting munched on by yet another corpse. She stabbed it with Faith's knife almost without thinking while maneuvering the elder woman so she was behind her.

"Be careful!" Buffy hissed in a low voice, trying not to attract any more of them to their little peaceful zombie-free zone. As far as she could see Carol was armed with nothing more than a small knife. It was better than nothing, but she was not a fighter, as proven by her staying with an abusive husband, and that left close-up kills out of the question. Buffy made eye-contact with Rime, and she answered the unasked question.

"Ed was killed by a walker inside their tent." Right. He was one of the useless idiots in the camp who did nothing but thought they should get special treatment just for existing. He was no loss for the group.

She opened her mouth to comment but was interrupted by a loud "NO!" Buffy frowned, she was 99% certain that that was Daryl's voice. Quickly moving back around to the front of the RV she got a full view of the middle of the campsite again, and what she saw made her heart clench a little. Daryl was kneeling by his brother who was clearly bleeding sluggishly from a bite in the upper part of his shoulder and, she was pretty certain, the lower part of his neck.

Buffy didn't care about Merle, he was a major ass and an even bigger problem, but he was Daryl's brother. And relatives were in short supply since the world as they knew it ended. Unbidden memories of losing Dawn came to the forefront of her mind, and she forcefully pushed them back into the box at the back of her mind where they belonged.

Instead of running over to her distraught hunting partner she grabbed Carol and Jacqui and dragged them around to the right side of the RV, momentarily let go of Jacqui to get the door open, and then quickly shepherded the two women into the back of it. Then she and Rime ran over to the two brothers, decapitating and stabbing a number of walkers on the way.

"Daryl?" She moved up beside him and quickly dispatched of the two walkers who had tried to sneak up behind him. Silently cursing herself for not bringing her own crossbow when they went hunting earlier. Something she had cursed herself for not doing several times even while they were out in the woods together, just the two of them.

Both she and Rime were politely not looking at the tears visible on his face. Merle was still breathing, but all three of them knew it was only a matter of time before whatever it was that caused dead people to reanimate would kill him. On Daryl's other side Rime used a machete to stab yet another walker. Daryl hadn't noticed any of it, all his focus was on his dying brother.

Behind them Morales, T-Dog, and Glenn were firing into a small newly arrived herd who had just broken through the treeline. Rick, Lori, and Shane had made it over to the FedEx truck and were moving around it to the other side so the three of them plus Andrea and Amy could surround it to ensure the safety of the children.

Then out of nowhere, Daryl took his own hunting knife out of its sheath and stabbed his own brother right between the eyes without hesitating. Afterwards he bowed his head while keeping his hand on the knife while it was still embedded into his brothers skull.

Rime and Buffy made eye contact over the two brothers before they went back to shielding Daryl. The Dixon brothers hadn't always gotten along as far as they had been able to discern from their behaviour, but they had cared about each other in their own messed up way. And since the outbreak the last thing you could do for anyone was stab them in the head before they reanimated.

A few minutes later he got up, removed the knife, and straight off cleaned it on the piece of cloth from his back pocket before putting it back in its sheath. Buffy took her machete out of its sheath and handed it over to Daryl, handle first, without comment. She simply nodded and got one in return.

Daryl was a predator, a different kind than her but he was still a predator, and the pointless death of his only living relative demanded an act of violence to properly take the edge off of the anger so he could grieve properly later. Using his crossbow or a gun would not suffice, and his bare fists were a bad idea all on its own. That left knives and swords. The machete was a long bladed knife. Long enough that he wouldn't put himself at too much risk and short enough that he could get a close kill to vent his anger and grief into.

It was going to be a long night, but Buffy and Rime silently agreed to watch over and aid the distressed hunter.


	11. Aftermath

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day. Day 24.  
 **A/N** : Meh. I don't like this, but it's nearly midnight so here you go.

When all was said and done it had turned out that their little group of survivors had been reduced from 35 to 15. Among the dead after walker ambush were Merle, Daryl's older brother, and Ed, Carol's husband and Sophia's father. The day after the ambush Morales and his wife, Miranda, decided to take their chances on the road and drove off with their two children to try and find some of their relatives.

Over half of their group had ended up dead because there had been no real leader and no one besides Buffy had even tried to teach anyone self-defense, and then with the Morales family leaving their little community were floundering. This was when Buffy decided to step up and take over leadership before someone else got the same idea. Shane was too unstable to lead anyone, including himself, as his obsession with Lori grew and he let his responsibilities to the group slip by the wayside. Rick wasn't ruthless enough to be at the top of the food chain at this point, and so far seemed unwilling to make the harsh decisions that needed to be made in order for them to get by.

Still, she had learned from her mistakes in Sunnydale and she had also learned from some lesser mistakes afterwards while they were trying to remake and rebuild the ICW, so she made her own little 'council' consisting of the ones who had actual survival skills; meaning herself, Rime, Daryl, Rick, and Andrea. Buffy was a natural leader and an incredibly strong fighter; Rime had over a millennium's worth of healing and medical skills, although the group believed her to be a young looking newly graduated doctor; Daryl could track, hunt, and fight, including extensive experience with a crossbow; Andrea, and to a lesser degree Amy, knew how to fish; and Rick was just a leader type.

It wouldn't be easy to lead them this way, but compromises were a way of life no matter how you looked at it. Although if she was completely honest with herself then she only allowed Andrea on board so she wouldn't put up a stink for being left out. The woman had some serious inferiority issues, and an odd need to prove herself to be one of the 'boys'. Rick was only a member because she suspected it would split the group if she didn't allow it. Lori would take her husband's side, and who knew who else might side with them.

She was pretty certain that Glenn, Andrea, Amy, T-Dog, and Daryl would side with her when it came to who should lead the group, and she also believed that they would side with her regarding the decision to make sure everyone learned at the very least the basic skills needed to survive in this new world. Dale could go either way because of his pacifistic views, but Carol seemed likely to follow Daryl.

When they left the Quarry Camp they had driven off in five vehicles; Buffy's Jeep, which she drove and had Rime and Jacqui as passengers; Rick drove a station wagon with Lori and Carl as the passengers; Dale drove his RV with Glenn in the passenger seat and Andrea and Amy in the back; Shane drove a Jeep by himself; and Daryl drove a motorcycle.

On the 63rd day after the outbreak they arrived at the CDC hoping there would be someone there who had answers. A cure. A plan. Something. However they had been disappointed; the only person left in the entire building was a Dr. Jenner who was rather unhelpful in that regard. He did however allow them to eat, shower, and stay the night. All of which had been greeted with great enthusiasm; none of them had had a shower in longer than any of them wanted to think about. In truth Buffy had appreciated the shower more than she had appreciated the food and even the coffee.

According to Dr. Jenner there was no cure, he was the only scientist left at the CDC, and he had lost contact with the outside world sometime before they arrived. In the end they'd had to break themselves out of the building as it had gone into lockdown in preparation for an in-built self-destruction program. Closed and heavily armed doors, even the enhanced ones secure buildings like the CDC had, was no match for a Slayer. Even among the panic it had caused a lot of staring when she simply hit the reinforced window a couple of times before it shattered into a thousand pieces.

This time they managed to get away from the disaster with only one voluntary loss, as Jacqui chose to stay behind with Dr. Edwin Jenner as the Center for Disease Control was destroyed for safety reasons as decided pre-apocalypse by whoever decided those things.

The day after a decision was made to reduce the number of vehicles as there was too little fuel already and they didn't need that many cars anyways. After some back and forth it was decided to keep the RV until they could find another one like it to switch it with. Dale would drive it, and Glenn, Andrea, Amy, and Shane would ride with him. T-Dog would join the Grimes family in the Station Wagon, while Carol and Sophia would join Buffy and Rime in the Jeep. Daryl would ride ahead on the motorbike, something Buffy was a little jealous of as she missed her own bike.

After a quick vote they picked a direction and just started to drive.


	12. Fight

**Challenge** : The 2016 August Fic-a-Day. _Day 28_.  
 **A/N** : This is the last part of WtFoH. There will be a sequel, but not until I've caught up with my other poor stories which have been neglected in favor of the August FaD.

Two days after leaving the burning remains of the CDC behind, the caravan was on the highway when they reached another car graveyard, and Dale's RV broke down in a small discharge of steam about one third of the way into it. In the front of their small procession Daryl got off of his motorbike, and went back to check on what the problem was before going off to see if there was anything in the cars littering the road they could use. At the back of the convoy everyone in the two last cars got out as well. Buffy called everyone to her in a loose half-circle in front of her after she had a short conversation with Dale regarding the status of his RV.

"The radiator hose on Dale's RV has broken down again. While he and Glenn tries to fix it the rest of us will be going through the cars to see if there's anything salvageable. The priorities are water, dry food, canned goods, medicine, and weapons. Bladed weaponry, crossbows with arrows and bolts, and anything blunt that can be use to kill walkers are the most important. However if you find guns and ammunition then take those as well. Lighters, lighter fluid, matches, and similar things are a priority as well." Before she got the chance to continue with her impromptu orders, T-Dog cut in.

"We can siphon fuel from the cars." Buffy nodded, it was good idea.

"Of course, fuel is in short supply and we need to get it when we have the opportunity. Remember to mark the fuel tanks so we know if it's gas or diesel, and store them in the appropriate cars." T-Dog then enlisted Shane and Andrea to help him.

"Remember to pair up and always keep your buddy in sight. Make sure that one of you is keeping watch over the other if you need to do something where you can't do it yourself, and that you have a knife or sword ready to use at all times. You never know if there's a lurker or fifty somewhere. It only takes a few seconds of inattentiveness to get bitten or scratched." She looked over the group and then added, "If you find something you want or need you may take it, but keep in mind that we have very limited storage space."

Then Lori added her two scents, "Are soap, toothpaste, and deodorant on the priority list?"

"Yes, but it's below the things I've already mentioned." Buffy got nods and affirmative replies from everyone and they split into teams. They were being amazingly cooperative, but in her experience most people wanted someone to tell them what to do. Especially in a crisis, and this definitely counted as that.

Dale and Glenn were obviously one team as they worked on the RV. T-Dog, Shane, and Andrea was a second as they went in search of fuel. Rime joined Carol and Sophia in scavenging, while the Grimes family did the same. Which left her with Amy and Daryl. Unknown to everyone else both Buffy and Rime had their bottomless backpacks and they had every intention to fill them up with as much as they could.

The three groups who were designated to go and scavenge returned to the cars to get bags to carry their loot in. As Buffy's little group walked away she saw Dale in her peripheral view as he climbed on top of the RV to keep watch, and she nodded to herself in approval. A high vantage point was important, especially when there were so many obstacles everywhere.

Over the next hour she managed to find a number of water bottles. Some of them were even still sealed, but most of them had been opened and had various amounts of water in them. She poured what she could into the largest bottles but threw the smaller and empty ones in her bag as well when Amy and Daryl were looking elsewhere. The search also yielded a few dozen cans of food, several first aid kits, and various weapons but very few bullets. As far as she could hear from the other groups their searches were turning up pretty much the same thing. Except for one thing; Shane found a van with Lipsey Mountain Spring Water printed on the side almost right next to where the RV had broken down. It had water tanks meant for office water coolers, which brought up the question should they take what they could fit into the cars and the RV, or simply take the entire van?

Then, as she was head first into the trunk of a car trying to find something useful, she suddenly heard the tell-tale sound of shuffling feet in the distance and abruptly pulled her head back out. Turning her head quickly around in all directions to pin down where the sound was coming from, she saw them towards the back of the cars behind the convoy.

"Daryl, Amy." Buffy said in a low voice. "We have incoming walkers behind us." Inwardly she cursed at herself for not having come up with a plan for situations like this yet. "Move slowly towards the Grimes'." Movement, and especially abrupt movement, got the walkers attention almost as fast loud noises.

The small family was only four-five cars ahead of them and to the right. As they moved intently towards the other group she signaled to Shane to get T-Dog and Andrea and do the same. As soon as they were close enough for her not to raise her voice she said, "There's a medium sized group of walkers headed straight for us. We have two choices; Hide and hope for them to pass without noticing us, or we can hide most of the group and the those of us who can fight can pick off the herd from the sides."

Horrified looks met her options and angry retorts came from Andrea, Lori, and Shane. "No, listen to me. That herd is going to find living, breathing human beings sooner or later, and then eat them. If we kill them now it might save someones later." What she didn't say was that she could've killed all of them on her own, but no one here would have believed that. "I'm going out in the open. Choose if you want to fight or hide, but do it quickly because when I go out there I'll make sure to attract them."

Unsurprisingly a hissing argument erupted, but she shot it down fast. In the end Lori decided that she and Carl would hide inside a car since they were too far from the RV, and Amy, not being a fighter either, chose a nearby car to hide in. Everyone else took a good hold of their best sword, katana, or knife, and Buffy split them into teams of two; her and Daryl; T-Dog and Shane; Rick and Andrea.

Rick and Andrea were given the task of getting Glenn, Carol, Sophia, and Rime into the RV were they would be relatively safe, and then guard it. Dale was safe on the roof as long as he didn't draw attention to himself, and it would've taken too long to get him down from there and inside. Not to mention that that would've drawn the attention of the walkers to them too soon. Buffy and Daryl would take the left side and hide between the cars on that side to pick off the walkers who came close enough, preferably without being seen by the rest of the herd, while T-Dog and Shane would do the same on the other side. Once they had downed enough to thin the herd Buffy would go out in the open and the rest would cover her blindspots.

Buffy gave the signal and the three duos split up to get to their appointed tasks. She and Daryl moved quickly and silently to some cars which would give them shelter and would also serve as a shield against the rest of the walkers. When they had gotten into position she took note of how far Rick and Andrea had gotten in getting the others into the van. All she saw of Glenn was his back as he was carefully opening the door to the RV. Fifteen feet away Rick and Andrea were collecting the last three members of their group and shepherding them towards the RV while trying to keep out of sight of the coming corpses.

The walkers were still far enough away that they hadn't noticed the movement up ahead, but that wouldn't last. She met Daryl's eyes, took in his dirty face, and the determination in his blue eyes. She nodded at him before she walked in a crouch to the back of the car so she could get a better view of when the walkers would arrive. It also gave her a direct view of Rime, Carol, and Sophia around the back of the car she was crouching on the side of. On the right side of her she saw as three of them rounded the front of the RV so they could enter it; Rick was keeping guard on the outer side of them. Andrea was bringing up the rear, holding the short sword Buffy had given her in both hands and determinedly keeping watch to both sides and intermittently behind herself.

A quick survey of the right side showed her that T-Dog and Shane were in place behind a station wagon, and that Shane was clearly upset about something. T-Dog had his eyes on the oncoming walkers, and kept changing his grip on the baseball bat he must've found in one of the cars. It had dried blood on the upper part so it had evidently been used as a defense against the walking dead before.

Then the walkers had drawn up to them, and Buffy allowed them to keep shuffling past her. One, two, three... When she got to eighteen she nodded to Daryl and he moved carefully to the front of the car while she got up from her crouch. Number twenty-one got the top half of her head sliced off with Buffy's Scythe, and another lost its head on the downswing. In her peripheral she saw Daryl stab one in the eye, before quickly moving on the next and stabbing that one in the eye as well.

The next ten minutes or so consisted mostly of her slicing and dicing the walkers, with kicks and punches thrown in here and there if any of them came to close. All the while she was careful to keep Daryl in her sight in case he needed help, but he was thankfully holding his own. On the other side of the road T-Dog and Shane were fighting back to back with Rick and Andrea. The animosity between Shane and Rick seemed to have been temporarily forgotten as the heat of the battle appeared to have caused old instincts to flare up while they fought for everyone's lives.

Absently Buffy noticed that Andrea's stance had improved a little, as had her grip and handling of the short sword. Dale was still on the roof, but he had edged closer to the boundary of the roof so he could see the fight below. The rest of their group had thankfully chosen to stay inside the RV, and for one reason or another were keeping both quiet and out of sight. Buffy suspected Rime's influence in those particular decisions; she could be very reasonable in her explanations and demands when she wanted someone to do something. Buffy had her own personal experiences with those after years of traveling on and off with the woman.

Eventually there were only a couple of walkers left and she whistled sharply to get their attention. They groaned in greeting and moved towards her straight away. She smiled and walked over while spinning the Scythe from one hand and over to the other, before returning it to her right hand. When she was about seven feet away she swung her favorite weapon in an arch from the ground and up, slicing the walkers head off from the lower left side of its head and vertically upwards. The last one had its head cut off from the right side and down on the left side.

Buffy took in her group, checking them over quickly for bites, scratches, and other wounds, but other than what she assumed to be dead man's blood they came across as unharmed as far as she could see.

Turning towards her fighting buddy, she asked, "Are you hurt?" Daryl gave a gruff negative answer as he was already cleaning the blade of his knife with the cloth he kept on him at all times.

"Are anyone hurt in any way?" To her relief she got negative replies from everyone, but Shane went on a tirade asking her what she'd been thinking engaging a herd of all things. Before he could get into full a full rant he was cut off by Dale. Who actually defended Buffy's decision.

"We need to check the perimeter before we relax, there can still be lurkers or crawlers in between the cars. Stragglers, too."

"We need ta check the bodies, too." The last came from Daryl who had come up beside her.

After even more arguments from Shane, all of which were shot down by Buffy and Daryl, they split back up into the teams from earlier and swept the area. There turned out to be five lurkers, one crawler, and three stragglers; all met their permanent end on something sharp and shiny.

Afterwards Lori, Carl, and Amy were collected from the cars up ahead and brought back to the RV. Glenn, Rime, Carol, and Sophia came out of the van and they ended up having an impromptu council meeting right then and there. Just as the quarrel was about to reach shouting levels Buffy interceded again.

"Which part of 'the walkers are attracted to loud noises' make you people think that a shouting match is a great idea when we're out in the open, especially when we've just had to kill off a herd?"

The glares sent her way at that from Shane, Lori, and Andrea would've been impressive if she hadn't spent nearly two decades being threatened by various demons and vampires, all of which were much more dangerous than an unstable former police officer and two barely trained women. All their effort gained them was a raised eyebrow.

"Listen up, all of you. Someone has to kill the roaming herds. If we let them keep walking they're going to find some other survivors, and chances are they're going to eat them." Buffy looked each of them in the eyes. "Think of the number of people in Atlanta before the infection began. Think of the number of people in Georgia. Think about the number of people in the United States. Or the number of people across the north border to Canada or the south border to Mexico."

Suddenly there were a lot of in-drawn breaths and pale faces, and wide eyes looking back at her at the implications. "I'll admit that I don't know what the actual numbers are, but I'm sure they're really high. As in the millions. There were a lot of large cities in America, and the vast majority of the people there have no doubt been turned into walkers. When they can't find living people in the cities anymore they're going to leave and try their luck in the countryside. Granted the military bombed many cities while they still could, but I doubt it made much of a dent in the long run."

Buffy took a deep breath and continued, "Think about your favorite TV show and how many viewers it had each week. Chances are it was in the millions as well, and the vast majority of them are probably dead now. Probably walking around trying to find someone to eat. Think about the Christmas rush and all the people who came out of the woodwork. So far the herds have been relatively small, but the small herds are going to meet up and make bigger ones. Eventually they're going to be too big for anyone to survive meeting them."

The silence at Buffy spelling out how serious their problems really were, and how much worse they were going to get, was unnerving.

"Killing off the small herds we meet a long the way is probably going to have even less impact on things than the bombs in the big cities, but we have to do something. As it is it will take decades or longer to make a proper dent in the undead population. Imagine living in some palisaded area somewhere and having a gigantic herd surround the entire place and pressing in from all sides. There's nowhere to go and it's only a matter of time before the wall, fence, or other barriers are torn down by the pure mass of corpses pressing in."

"Stop it! We get, please stop." Tears were streaming down Carol's cheeks, and she looked terrified. She was holding her hands over her daughter's ears, just like Lori was holding her hands over Carl's ears. Lori herself wasn't crying, but she looked just as horrified as everyone else.

"I'm not trying to scare you, well maybe a little, but you need to understand what we're really up against. This is why I want everyone to learn how to fight, why I want to kill all the walkers we come across. If we're going to have a chance to rebuild, we need to get rid of the walkers. We need to find somewhere to fortify, somewhere we can grow our own food, and so on. Just, please think about it."

When they finally went to bed that night, right there on the congested highway, it was with heavy thoughts on their minds.


	13. Author's Note

This story is being rewritten. The first two chapters of the new version can be found on my profile under the title 'The Fall of Humanity'.

Thank you to all those who have followed this story and/or reviewed, it is very much appreciated.


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